Quite suddenly then the implied meaning of the Swede’s words flashed across me, showing that he no longer wished to leave post-haste, and had changed his mind.  “Enough to last till tomorrow”—­he assumed we should stay on the island another night.  It struck me as odd.  The night before he was so positive the other way.  How had the change come about?

Great crumblings of the banks occurred at breakfast, with heavy splashings and clouds of spray which the wind brought into our frying-pan, and my fellow-traveler talked incessantly about the difficulty the Vienna-Pesth steamers must have to find the channel in flood.  But the state of his mind interested and impressed me far more than the state of the river or the difficulties of the steamers.  He had changed somehow since the evening before.  His manner was different—­a trifle excited, a trifle shy, with a sort of suspicion about his voice and gestures.  I hardly know how to describe it now in cold blood, but at the time I remember being quite certain of one thing—­that he had become frightened?

He ate very little breakfast, and for once omitted to smoke his pipe.  He had the map spread open beside him, and kept studying its markings.

“We’d better get off sharp in an hour,” I said presently, feeling for an opening that must bring him indirectly to a partial confession at any rate.  And his answer puzzled me uncomfortably:  “Rather!  If they’ll let us.”

“Who’ll let us?  The elements?” I asked quickly, with affected indifference.

“The powers of this awful place, whoever they are,” he replied, keeping his eyes on the map.  “The gods are here, if they are anywhere at all in the world.”

“The elements are always the true immortals,” I replied, laughing as naturally as I could manage, yet knowing quite well that my face reflected my true feelings when he looked up gravely at me and spoke across the smoke: 

“We shall be fortunate if we get away without further disaster.”

This was exactly what I had dreaded, and I screwed myself up to the point of the direct question.  It was like agreeing to allow the dentist to extract the tooth; it had to come anyhow in the long run, and the rest was all pretence.

“Further disaster!  Why, what’s happened?”

“For one thing—­the steering paddle’s gone,” he said quietly.

“The steering paddle gone!” I repeated, greatly excited, for this was our rudder, and the Danube in flood without a rudder was suicide.  “But what—­”

“And there’s a tear in the bottom of the canoe,” he added, with a genuine little tremor in his voice.

I continued staring at him, able only to repeat the words in his face somewhat foolishly.  There, in the heat of the sun, and on this burning sand, I was aware of a freezing atmosphere descending round us.  I got up to follow him, for he merely nodded his head gravely and led the way towards the tent a few yards on the other side of the fireplace.  The canoe still lay there as I had last seen her in the night, ribs uppermost, the paddles, or rather, the paddle, on the sand beside her.